With Croydon designated as one of the unhealthiest boroughs in London Foods for Life Nutrition and Health consultancy called for a joint effort to make Croydon a healthier place to live and work. A focus on 5 portions of vegetables per day seemed a good place to start.

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Child Nutrition Act USA: More effort to give children a healthier start in life; legislation to improve healthy options for school children. If you know anyone in the USA please forward to them ASAP to try to stop the senate from watering this legislation down to another worthless 'could do'.

Elizabeth Kucinich, Director of Public and Government Affairs in PCRM, has published this message today: Congress is on the verge of voting for a new Child Nutrition Act, and we’ve received word that an excellent House version of the bill, which would allow more children to have access to healthful plant-based options, may be rejected for a much weaker, stripped-down Senate version. This Senate version will make it harder for children to choose healthy food options in the cafeteria. Our chance to improve school lunches across the nation lies in the hands of Congress today! Please urge key leaders in the House to pass the superior House bill, H.R. 5504, and reject the Senate’s bill, S. 3307.

The health of America's children is declining rapidly, with millions afflicted by obesity and at high risk for adult diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. These children, many of whom get more than half of their daily calories in the school lunch line, are not given the opportunity to choose healthier food or learn good eating habits at school. Urge Congress to help provide students more plant-based options in the federally funded school lunch and school breakfast programs. Please support H.R. 5504, The Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010, to give students the healthy school lunches that they deserve.

The status quo is suicide - inaction is not acceptable - what are you going to do ?

Most Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables, and fruit consumption has dropped slightly, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. Researchers found that last year about one-third of U.S. adults consumed fruit or fruit juice at least twice a day, down slightly from more than 34 percent in 2000. About 26 percent of Americans ate vegetables three or more times a day, the same results as reported in 2000.

California had the highest consumption rate for fruit, Oklahoma had the lowest. The state with the highest consumption rate for vegetables was Tennessee, and South Dakota had the lowest of any state. No state, however, met the Healthy People 2010 targets as set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goals for fruit and vegetable consumption under this initiative are for three-quarters of adults to consume two or more fruit servings and for half of adults to consume three or more vegetable servings each day.

Eating a colorful variety of fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruits and vegetables (including 100% juice) is an easy and positive step in helping to lead a healthy life.

The UK and particularly Croydon need to take a lead on this to avoid even more damning figures on Croydon's state of ill health

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Early Day Motion

EDM 669 MEAT-FREE MONDAYS CAMPAIGN

06.09.2010

Leech, John

That this House acknowledges UN figures which suggest that meat production is responsible for approximately 18 per cent. of global carbon emissions; further acknowledges that methane, emitted by cows and pigs, is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas; recognises that across the UK 1 million tonnes of beef, 1.3 million tonnes of pork and 1.8 million tonnes of poultry are consumed every year; further recognises that this level of meat consumption is detrimental to the health of the nation and increasingly to the public purse; further recognises that global meat production is forecast to almost double to 456 million tonnes in 2050 compared to 2001 levels; believes that current meat consumption levels are unsustainable if the Climate Change Act 2008 is to be successfully implemented tohelp the UK fight against climate change; calls for a shift towards less meat-oriented diets nationally; further recognises that meat-free Mondays would help to promote this; and furtherbelieves that Parliament should set an example by supporting meat-free Mondays in all cafeterias in the Houses of Parliament.